Demand met: Work on Dasu Hydropower Project likely to resume soon

Govt, WAPDA agree to owners’ demand of market rate compensation for land submerged by dam.

ABBOTABAD: Work on Dasu Hydropower Project (DHPP) is likely to resume after a gap of more than four months as the provincial government and Water and Power Development Authority (Wapda) have agreed to pay landowners compensation at par with market rates.

According to an official familiar with the matter, Wapda has incurred millions of rupees in losses as the project has been on hold since last September due to a row over land prices between Wapda and locals whose land will be submerged by dam water. The insider said Kohistan’s DC, who also holds the office of district registrar, will announce the new compensation rates by Tuesday (today).

As a follow-up of a meeting between Chief Minister Pervez Khattak and members of the action committee held last week, Hazara Commissioner Arbab Arif met a delegation of the committee comprising Parliamentary Committee for Industries Secretary Sarzameen Khan, Adviser to K-P CM Abdul Haq Khan, PML-N’s MPA Abdul Sattar Khan, Shamsur Rehman, Haji Fazalur Rehman, Maliq Qadam Khan and others on January 30.

According to action committee member Shamsur Rehman, after lengthy deliberation, the commissioner assured them CM Khattak’s directives will be implemented and landowners will be paid compensation in accordance with rates mentioned during the registration of land transfer deeds carried out in the project area in the last five years.

Rehman told The Express Tribune the provincial government and Wapda had fixed the per kanal rate of commercial, cultivated, uncultivated and barren land at Rs1 million, Rs0.8 million, Rs0.6 million and Rs0.4 million, respectively.

Rehman said according to transfer deeds registered with the district sub-registrar’s office after March 2010, the rate of one kanal commercial land is Rs5 million, cultivated land is Rs1.8-2 million, uncultivated land is Rs1.5 million and barren land Rs1.2 million.

The committee member insisted Wapda would not be allowed to resume work on the project till all the 18 demands made by them are fulfilled. “We want our demands met through a written agreement. Until the rest of them are met, Kohistanis would not allow work on the project,” said Rehman, adding in exchange for the government’s announcement to pay the market rate, the action committee would allow work to begin on Karakoram Highway which is part of the DHPP.

When approached, PML-N MPA from Kohistan, Abdul Sattar Khan, reiterated Rehman’s stance. Khan confirmed the commissioner will make an announcement about the updated compensation, but added the committee would press the government and Wapda to fulfil the remaining 17 demands as well to ensure smooth completion of work.

“We will not compromise on a single point of our charter of demands and will only allow complete resumption once our demands are met,” he said.

According to the MPA, he wanted the project to finish on time without any snags but he also did not want to compromise on the rights of Kohistanis. “Construction of link roads, colleges, technical institutes, hospitals and job quota for Kohistanis are some of the key points of our 18-point charter of demands,” said Khan.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 3^rd, 2015.